On the recommendation of a reliable source I went to the local hub for literary and alternative culture in Novi Sad, Bulevar Books. This trip has already been marked by weird and fortuitous confluences of acquaintance, starting with the meeting the local shows organizer stopping to say hi when I was on the street with some other musician friends as he rushed by in the rain, only to realize that he had been in a poetry workshop led by one of the friends I was with. I stopped for coffee a couple days ago, and unbeknownst to me another acquaintance from the internet was working at the cafe. At Bulevar Books I saw that legendary Novi Sad musician and author Slobodan Tišma had a new book out. I bought it, and as I was walking out, I saw the man himself sitting on the street outside in the cafe. I introduced myself, and we struck up a conversation. I met him for a long talk the following day. More on that in another post, but between planned meetups, there have been plenty of positive coincidences.
I met with teaching colleagues and former instructors at the local language school where I solidified my commitment to this language during grad school, meeting some of them in person for the first time. I laid out the rough notes for this post in a dog-friendly punk and hardcore cafe tucked away off the main old town center in a blocked-off passage. I witnessed a local city government protest that involved blockading 30 intersections throughout this mid-sized city for thirty minutes in a demand for local city council elections. Elections should have been held already, but have been suspended.
Even in relatively sleepy Novi Sad there is an open and frank disdain for the authorities, and a level of political will and engagement that simply no longer exists in my own country. Even as the students I talk to profess to have given up hope, they and others nevertheless continue to organize. Americans seem completely anaesthetized.
“We want elections”
There is a brand of hopelessness here that still allows for a future, a hopelessness that cannot force allegiance.